From Varsity to JV

If this is the only race so far this season, you haven't earned your spot. Just do well in your next race and get back up to varsity

Don't whine, and go out and destroy the field in your JV race by 90+ seconds. You'll be back as a varsity runner.

Also, perhaps he thinks you may drop out of future races which would hurt the varsity team.

Haven't had to drop out of a race ever before, plus I've ran varsity the past two years in track and xc. I know my coach well and he knows my training.

Drop-outs are worse than slows. You need to toughen up or pick another sport. Get some meds if you have asthma.

BetterLuckNextTime wrote:

Haven't had to drop out of a race ever before, plus I've ran varsity the past two years in track and xc. I know my coach well and he knows my training.

Well finish your next race and maybe you'll move up

Let's look at it from the other side. If you ran the 7th fastest time and the coach put someone in that spot - would you be upset? The greatest thing about our sport is there is very little " coaches pet" syndrome. In most other sports (football, soccer, basketball, etc) starting positions and playing time is at the discretion of the coach. XC, golf & swimming are a few that picking your team is in most cases very easy. I don't know why you dropped out, but you need to earn your spot and more importantly the confidence of your coach and team to be on varsity. Best of luck.

If accurate, your coach is an a**hole. They are everywhere. Keep working hard. If you are easily in the top five, there is no way he will keep you out for long (and especially not when it matters).

Collegecoach is absolutely correct. Every HS team sport athlete I know believes he should start. Those who are cut think the coach is stupid and wrong. Stats here don't lie. You know what you have to do and what you can do. Relax in your next race, run to your capability and you'll be back on varsity. Do you believe you're a varsity runner? Show it, the season is long. Your coach wants some fair healthy competition for the whole team.

This is better than my team. This girl has DNFed every race this season, but she still gets put in varsity every time. (She was #2 on our team last season but has injury issues since then).

After 4 freshman girls finished in the top 7 one of the guys made a comment about upperclassman getting knocked off varsity (3 of whom ran in the state meet).

They literally looked at him confused and said, "they can do that?"

In this case maybe your coach wants you to have a no pressure next race to make sure your 100%. Or maybe it's to give a shot to a new kid. Or maybe just to piss you off. But coaches more often than not will put out the best team.

Alex Smith lost his starting job after getting a concussion. Sh!t happens.

He is setting the tone that inconsistency is unacceptable. Just get back on varsity by proving it in your races and stay there.

Here's the thing, being on varsity isn't all it is cracked up to be. Racing hard starting September 3 and hoping to hold it to the middle of November is crazy.

I'm sure it sucks that at next weeks invite, your team will lose to a couple teams they wouldn't have if you had been in the varsity race running hard.

The thing is that in the long run it might be better for the team if you just run the JV race hard enough to win/secure the #7 time.

I had similar breathing issues and race results in HS and demotions in HS. While exercise induced asthma was part of the problem, racing workouts and racing too hard too often was also a trigger. I did much better in college when we only had one race and one hard workout OR two hard workouts a week.

BetterLuckNextTime wrote:

one bad race (not even an important one)

None of your races are important. No body cares if you are the 12 finisher at the podunk invitational. Just make sure you are varsity for conference.

If you have a medical problem, get some claritin or something. And get that figured out sooner rather than later.

Ask your coach for a private conversation. During this meeting ask him why he demoted you to JV. The big thing about this discussion is that you need to leave all emotion out of it. Consider it a business meeting even though it feels personal. Ask for his reasons and provide your thoughts. The sooner you learn how to deal with people directly and fairly without any emotional ties to the outcome, the easier your life will become.

Whatever he decides, continue to work hard in practice and then race to the best of your ability. If you do this and are consistently one of the top guys, he will run you on varsity. However, if you are a complainer, difficult to coach and a pain in the ass to be around, he has the power to make your life miserable.

I was demoted to JV for one track meet my senior year in high school for not showing up to a Saturday practice when I had a broken foot. The varsity squad ran at a very competitive meet and had a lot of fun. I was relegated to a local track meet so I went out and set 4 meet records and won athlete of the meet as a distance runner. The year before I ran 4:09 for the 1600. Don't worry about it. I liked the other poster who recommended to go out and crush the JV race. You'll be able to say you won the race while the varsity runners will be licking their wounds.

1) Don't worry about it. You may not like what your coach did but it clearly is within his right.

2) If you'd like to, you can go talk to him and ask him why he did it. I don't think that is really necessary but the reasoning doesn't really matter. If you start running well again you'll be back on varsity.

Or you could just go up and say to him, "Coach I don't agree with you moving to me to JV, and I'm going to work my ass off to show you were wrong"

3) Get your wheezing/collapsing thing under control. That to me is the biggest thing and what your coach should be talking to you about.

Good luck.

College coach wrote:

Let's look at it from the other side. If you ran the 7th fastest time and the coach put someone in that spot - would you be upset? The greatest thing about our sport is there is very little " coaches pet" syndrome. In most other sports (football, soccer, basketball, etc) starting positions and playing time is at the discretion of the coach. XC, golf & swimming are a few that picking your team is in most cases very easy. I don't know why you dropped out, but you need to earn your spot and more importantly the confidence of your coach and team to be on varsity. Best of luck.

That is a stupid perspective. No good coach drops one of their clear top 3 because of a bad race. Bad races happen all the time and every decent coach knows this and won't overreact to a one off event. Especially if the guy has a respiratory infection. In fact a good coach would have never let one of their top guys with a respiratory run a race in early September.

OP clearly your coach isn't great unless there's more to this story or you've done something else to piss him off. I would say explain to him that you were sick and ask for another chance before he drops you to JV but from your story he doesn't sound like the most logical guy. I think you're best course is explain to him you were sick and ask him what you need to do to get back to varsity and just suck it up and run a race JV if that is what it takes. Shitty that he dropped you to JV so quickly but a lot of High School coaches make stupid decisions like this.

No coach wants a liability on on the starting line. With your recent DNF and breathing problems, you appear to be a liability.

Get healthy. Run a fast race to prove you're healthy to your coach and your teammates. Get back on varsity. No whining.